Ron Sexsmith - Time Being

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Canadian folkster's Time timeless.

By Chad Grischow

Fifteen years and ten albums in, prolific Canadian singer-songwriter 875954/imgs_1.html" class='autolink'>Ron Sexsmith is aging well. Already known as the songwriters' songwriter, garnering praise from the likes of Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Elton John, and Chris Martin, his elegant tenth album is his most accessible work to date. The cleanly orchestrated music floats through the background gracefully weaving a pleasingly simple package to deliver brilliantly complex and beautiful lyrics.

Producer Mitchell Froom (Costello, McCartney) makes sure the album strikes the perfect balance between the breezy folk instrumentation and Sexsmith's soft vocals, reminiscent of Costello's balladry. The music is crisp and gorgeous, but makes sure listeners never mistake it as the star of the show, allowing Sexsmith's tender melodies and song craft to take center stage.

From the start of the album, with breezy man versus time tune "Hands Of Time", Sexsmith keeps things interesting by exploring a wide variety of topics rather than relying on the relationship crutch. The bouncy "Ship Of Fools" takes a critical look at how easy it is to avoid all the world's problems living in a country so far from it all, using a sinking ship as a metaphor for the tumultuous world. Death is explored on both the southern-fried chugging "Cold Hearted Wind" and tender album closer "And Now The Day Is Gone", lamenting missed opportunities with lines like, "The sun has gone / It rose but never shone / And now the day is gone / Before it'd ever begun".

Inspired by a slaughterhouse truck driver's route, Beatles-esque "The Grim Trucker" sparkles with its earnest melodic vocals and give-and-take ruffled riff verses and psychedelic pop hook. Exploring the karma of the situation, Sexsmith slyly ponders, "Fill our face with eggs and bacon / While this question weighs on our minds / Will we wake to wings in Heaven / Or hooves and snout in our next lives?" Irony rules "Jazz At The Bookstore", as blues tones tug at the folk rambler, anchoring the tune. The sadness involved in important music going unnoticed over the hustle and bustle in Starbucks is found in lines, "Leadbelly's in the background / Being drowned out by the grind / Singing about 'Rock Island Line' / Nobody seems to pay him any mind". The thought of brilliant music written as art now serving as inconsequential background music is interesting, but the real irony is that this bluesy little gem is destined for the same fate he ponders in the lyrics.

Providing toe-tapping sonic glimmers of hope, Sexsmith scores with a pair of folk treasures to buoy listeners' spirits in dark times. The awakened instrumentation of "I Think We're Lost" would have it fit wonderfully on Costello's King Of America, brightly gleaming in contrast to the desperate state of the world, "And the sun don't shine the way it used to / And the rain falls harder than it's s'posed to". Knowingly accepting life's struggles, "All In Good Time" succeeds with jangling guitars and Sexsmith's care-free delivery, making even the simple hook sparkle. The patience-preaching breeze offers world-wise advice, "It all seems so obvious now / When I look back over my life / There's a need for sorrow and doubt / The darkness and the light, is how it must be".

When he does write of relationships, he does it with a panache that shows why he is widely considered one of the best living songwriters. As perfect as a folk love song gets, brilliantly melodic and musically chilled "Snow Angel" examines the lasting impression of a relationship gone sour. Haunting lyrics, like, "Strange how their love bloomed in the winter / Only to vanish in the spring / It never fails to make him shiver / To see the outline of her wings", flow through the startlingly gorgeous tune.

Ultimately, Time Being consistently delivers startlingly great folk songs. The clean instrumentation supporting brilliantly written lyrics creates a confident sound. The album is a consistently gorgeous listen that should help Sexsmith gain more, well deserved, attention.